Krasner Firings Stir Fallout In Court: Cases Stalled, Criticism Emerges
Source: Win McNamee / Getty
Philly.com– Three days after new District Attorney Larry Krasner fired 31 people in a dramatic office shakeup, the impact began to ripple through Philadelphia’s court system on Monday.
One judge took the bench and criticized the prosecutor’s office for asking to postpone a murder trial — which had been scheduled to begin Monday — because the assistant district attorney handling the case was among those handed a pink slip.
“This court has been placed, because of the management decisions by the new district attorney, in an exceedingly difficult position today,” said Common Pleas Judge Barbara A. McDermott.
In a different courtroom, another judge agreed to delay a vehicular homicide trial because the prosecutor on that case had also been forced out. Lawyers were asked to return Tuesday to figure out the next step. The judge, meanwhile, ordered the defendant’s house arrest lifted immediately — saying that to maintain the restriction because of staffing issues in the prosecutor’s office was “not fair.”
The Black Unemployment Rate Is way Down — Great News Right? Not So Fast
The Atlantic– Yesterday, President Trump tweeted that the unemployment rate for black Americans had reached the lowest on record, and that the rate for Hispanic Americans will soon reach a similar milestone. He effectively claimed credit for these improvements, writing, “Dems did nothing for you but get your vote!”
The truth is, Trump has so far done little to contribute to the declines in unemployment among blacks and Hispanics—those declines are more a reflection of the sound economic policy of the past decade. And even though the black and Hispanic unemployment rates have improved over the past year, they are still much higher than the rate for white Americans—and that’s a crucial piece of context missing from Trump’s tweet.
Source: George Frey / Getty
For almost as long as unemployment statistics have been recorded (since around the time of the Great Depression), a gulf has existed between white Americans and black and Hispanic Americans. A good yet unfortunate rule of thumb is that the unemployment rate for blacks is generally about twice as high as the one for whites.
H&M Forced To Apologize
Source: Joe Raedle / Getty
CNN Money- On Monday, clothier H&M was forced to apologize for using a black child to model a sweatshirt with a “coolest monkey in the jungle” slogan.
The company removed the offending ad from its website after hundreds of social media users accused it of being racist. It continues to sell the hooded top online.
“This image has now been removed from all H&M channels and we apologize to anyone this may have offended,” said H&M (HNNMY) spokeswoman Anna Eriksson.
The image of the child in the hoodie appeared on the British version of the Swedish retailer’s online store.
